Comic Book Men: Con Men

This episode was full of comic book goodness. The guys held their own charity comic convention for an ill friend.Warning: Spoilers ahead.
The first item that came through The Stash’s doors was a pair of He-Man animation cels. For those unfamiliar, an animation cel is a transparent sheet on which animation is drawn. This way, the animation doesn’t have to be drawn multiple times. Today, animation cels are collector items since they are rarely used due to the availability of computer technology. He-Man was an 1980’s television show that was based off of Mattel’s Masters of the Universe toy line. The series ran for two seasons with 130 episodes. In 2002, it was rebooted.
The man who brought in the pieces wanted $700. Walt ended up calling in Rob Bruce to get an expert opinion and an accurate price. Rob estimated the He-Man animation cel at $175 retail. The next cell was an extremely rare set up sheet. It would show the colors for the individual characters for the entire time of production. He valued it at $300 retail. After some haggling, Walt bought the set for $200. I know The Stash has to make a profit, but to me it seemed as if that was a somewhat unfair price for the pair.
Next, a man came in looking to purchase Amazing Spider-Man #300.Written in 1988, this particular book was the first appearance of Venom. The black costume worn by Venom was created by a fan, which Marvel ended up buying for $220. The man bought the comic for $90.
The third man who walked into The Stash this episode came bearing a signed Admiral Kirk figure from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. KB Toys only released 5000 figures. For some reason Walt is not a fan of Star Trek, so he wasn’t really fond of buying it. But he ended up purchasing it for $110. On a random note, Ming’s impression of Kirk was hilariously bad.
Finally, a man came in with a poster of a recreation of Superman #13. Once again, the guys needed Rob’s help to price the item. Seeing Rob work his magic while describing and pricing different pieces is a thing of beauty. After inspecting the item, he noticed that it was produced after 1963 because the poster had a zip code and those weren’t invented until that year. Because it wasn’t an original piece from the ’40s, he priced it at around $40. The man couldn’t part with it for such a low price.
Gary Conover, a friend and patron of The Stash, called the store and asked them to help catalog and sell his collection. Gary had over 72 boxes of comics. He had so many rare books, like Tales of Asgard #1, Iron Man #1, Avengers #4, and Daredevil #1, that the guys found it difficult to value his collection. So, they decided to hold their own convention and sell the most valuable books auction style. I loved seeing all of the rare books he had. He probably puts everyone’s collection to shame.
It was heart-warming to see the guys rally and put this convention together for Gary. As a surprise, the guys had Stan Lee open the convention with a special message. After the day was over, they ended up making over $27,000 for Gary.
Don’t forget, you can download the free companion podcast on iTunes.Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars